


Say Cheese

by quasiouster (QuasiOuster)



Series: Pictures and Images [2]
Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 07:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23847658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuasiOuster/pseuds/quasiouster
Summary: It's Claire's birthday, but things don't quite go as planned.
Relationships: Claire Browne & Neil Melendez, Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Series: Pictures and Images [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718356
Comments: 18
Kudos: 64





	Say Cheese

Melendez looked up from the conference table as three of his four residents wandered in from rounds to get their assignments for the day. Murphy seemed relaxed judging by his concentration on an article he’d pulled up on his tablet. Reznick and Park were bickering about something, though their demeanor signaled a casual banter rather than anything requiring his intervention.

Claire was nowhere in sight. Good.

“Anything happen in rounds that I need to know about,” he asked as they took seats around the table.

“The patient in 203 thinks he’s having a stress-related allergic reaction to his mother-in-law moving in.” Shaun reported. “He’s not. It’s eczema.”

Park grinned at his co-resident's blunt assessment. “But he did have a panic attack about it, which isn’t great when you’ve had a triple by-pass the previous year. He’ll be ready for discharge in a few hours. Other than that. Business as usual. It’s kind of a slow week.”

“I’ll take it,” Morgan added. “The last month or so has been crazy. I’m going to have so much to work on during my yoga retreat this weekend."

Shaun looked up from his reading. “You're right. According to the monthly efficiency reports, there was an increase in general hospital admissions as well as consults that result in a scheduled surgery in the last month.”

“See,” Morgan said, gesturing at Shaun. “Crazy.”

“I’ll be sure to bring up hazard pay for residents at the next staff meeting,” Melendez responded dryly. “The ER is short-staffed until the next shift, so you’ll need to head down there for the morning. Where’s Browne?”

Morgan and Park grinned, although the latter a little sheepishly. Shaun looked up and then back down at his article. “She drew the short straw for doing the vitals for Mrs. Thom in 105.” Park checked his watch. “I’m sure by now she’ll just be starting story number four about her grandkids.”

Melendez chuckled. “Ouch. But I’m glad she’s not here at the moment.” This odd admission from him piqued everyone’s interest. “As you all know, in order to foster team cooperation and appreciation, we’ve done something special as a group for each of your birthdays. And today is Claire’s birthday.”

“Really?” Morgan said. “She hasn’t said a word.”

“I knew.” They all turned to look at Shaun. “I saw it on her driver’s license once,” he explained. “Maybe she doesn’t want people to know, so she didn’t say anything.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” Melendez said. “It’s now a tradition.” Morgan rolled her eyes.

“I think it’s kinda nice,” Park offered.

“Yeah,” Morgan scoffed, “that’s because on your birthday, you dragged us all the way to Oakland to a boring baseball game.”

Park seemed offended “What? It was a lot of fun.” He looked to Melendez for support who shrugged, but smiled. They’d both had a good time at the game. “It was a beautiful day, not a big crowd,” he directed at Shaun, “and the A’s won.”

Shaun looked up again from his article. “The hot dogs were very good there.”

“I’m sure it was a great time for you all getting to bro out over sports.” Shaun glanced in her direction as if checking to see if she meant him as well. “Meanwhile Claire and I finished two New York Times crossword puzzles that afternoon.”

“Well it was a hell of a lot more fun than the sushi dinner we went to for your birthday. That place was so pretentious.”

“You mean exclusive. And just because you had to slap on some real pants instead of your usual jeans doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good outing. I seem to remember you eating your fair share.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t good. Just that it was pretentious and not as fun as a baseball game,” Park clarified. “And I think we were the only two that enjoyed it. Everyone else very politely indulged you.”

“I enjoyed it,” Melendez said. “The sake was great.”

“I did _not_ enjoy it,” Shaun confirmed.

“Fine. I don’t expect everyone’s palate to be as refined as mine. But we all had a good time, and that’s what counts. Not like that dumb baseball game.”

“Please. You complained just as loudly about Shaun’s birthday, too. Admit it. You don’t like catering to other people’s interests.”

“When their interests are lame, no, I don't.” Morgan threw back. 

Shaun put his tablet down and sat up straighter in his chair. “Visiting the archives at the Stanford Medical Library is _not_ lame. They don’t open that part up to the public, and we got to see their collection of international medical journals from the 18th Century.” It was hard to not be amused by his excitement over the trip. 

Melendez grinned. “I had to call in a lot of favors to pull that off, too.” Shaun offered a small smile in his direction, clearly pleased by the effort.

“You’re right, Shaun,” Morgan conceded. “It wasn’t lame.” Shaun nodded. Then she added, “just boring.” Shaun’s face tightened up, and he went back to reading his article, putting his back to her in silent offense.

“So,” Park said, curious. “What’s the plan for Claire? Amusement park? Picnic?”

“Volunteering at the food bank? Karaoke?” Morgan added. Shaun perked up at that last guess.

Melendez frowned. “Those are … not bad suggestions, actually.”

“Just because we didn’t know it was her birthday, doesn’t mean we’re clueless about what she likes to do for fun,” Morgan explained.

Shaun nodded. “Claire has very fun interests.” He turned to Melendez. “So, you’re saying we’re not doing any of those things?”

“Uh, no. I thought we’d just have some cake. It should be ready by one, so I need to you to make sure she’s in the breakroom when it gets here.”

Park groaned. Shaun shook his head. Morgan muttered, “lame,” under her breath.

“She doesn’t like to celebrate her birthday, so I didn’t want to make a big deal.” Melendez did not like how this had turned around on him.

“Or,” Park offered, “you forgot, and you’re trying to cover it up with a last-minute cake and all of us in cahoots on your lame non-celebration.”

“I didn’t forget,” Melendez protested. “I just figured she didn’t need a lot of fanfare.” Now that Park had planted the seed, it seemed all of his residents were looking at him with a renewed skepticism. “Seriously.”

“Your funeral,” Park said and gathered up his things to head to the ER. “We’ll make sure she’s in the breakroom at 1:00. And I look forward to hearing you explain how you definitely didn’t forget about her birthday until this morning and that we’re not doing anything special for her. That should go over really well.”

“We _are_ doing something special,” Melendez argued. “We’re having cake.” Each resident rose and headed out the door, various looks of disappointment on their faces.

He didn’t need to listen to them. He knew what he was doing.

* * *

The morning had started normal enough for Claire – pre-work run, coffee, breakfast, rounds, and a shift down in the ER.

She’d drawn the short straw and ended up spending half an hour getting vitals on a chatty patient, Mrs. Thom. Not that she minded much. In between stories of grandkid number eight and updates on how uncomfortable she was in the hospital and couldn’t wait to get out of there, Claire could let her mind wander and relax. When Park had slipped in to tell her they were doing ER consults for the day, she knew she hadn’t missed anything important and was in no hurry to get down there.

Thankfully, none of them knew it was her birthday.

Melendez had been doing these inane field trips for all the other birthdays as a team building exercise. But it seemed he’d taken her at her word when she’d mentioned some time ago that she didn’t care to do anything special for hers. When you grow up with a mom who’s a mess and rarely remembers your birthday from year to year, much less makes an effort to celebrate, you tend to downplay the importance of such an occasion. She planned to pick up a special treat for dinner, maybe have a glass of wine, and spend a quiet evening with a good book.

Though, she wouldn’t put it past Melendez to spring something on her before all that.

She’d paired up with Shaun today, but he’d gotten roped into doing a cast on a ten-year old who’d fallen from his treehouse. Last she’d seen, Morgan and Park were deciding whether their patient was having a minor cardiac event or a major bout of indigestion. 

Finishing up with her patient who only needed a few stitches and had completed everything needed for discharge, she went back out into the main hallway to see if there were any more cases to pick up. It’d been a slow week; most of the patient areas were empty and her co-residents nowhere to be seen.

Claire strolled over to the nurse’s station and handed her last patient’s file to Nurse Dhanoa. “Where is everybody,” she asked. “It’s eerily quiet in here.”

He made a few notes on the chart. “Discharge?” Claire nodded. “I don’t know. Lunch maybe?” Claire checked her watch and nodded. It was almost 1:00.

“I’ll hang out until someone gets back. I wouldn’t want to completely abandon you,” she joked.

“Are you kidding? It’s the only time we get some peace and quiet around here.” Dhanoa smirked at her as he made his way from behind the desk to go discharge her patient. Before she could respond with her own smartass remark, Park appeared from around the corner.

“There’s something you need to see upstairs.”

Claire frowned. “What’s going on? And where is everybody? I don’t want to leave people short-handed down here.” Park had already nudged her back in the direction he’d come from.

“It’s already handled. Melendez cleared it with Lim.”

He’d really started to walk fast and she had to scurry beside him to keep up. “What happened? And why the rush?”

Park hit the button to close the elevator door. “You’ll see. And you’re not going to believe it.”

A few moments later the elevator doors opened back up and Park took off, Claire practically running beside him to keep up. She didn’t even know where they were going – the surgical wing, radiology maybe? But then Park took a sharp right.

The breakroom?

Park rushed inside and standing by the counter was Melendez, Shaun, and Morgan, the latter holding a cute little cake.

Claire halted abruptly, taking in the scene in front of her in shock. Her eyes darted from the cake to her co-workers and back again. It looked like a fancy cake, the kind you get at one of those trendy little pastry shops and had to order ahead of time. Not at all the cakes she was used to where you pick it out from the refrigerator section at the grocery store. She couldn't tell what kind of cake it was only that it had a tasty looking light-colored frosting with a chocolate drip on top and an intricately designed “Happy Birthday” amidst pretty patterns and swirls. One flaming candle sat lit in the middle.

After a few beats, she turned her gaze toward Melendez who stood off to the side, a suspiciously innocent expression directed at her.

“You didn’t!” she accused. Her eyes narrowed, twin orbs of fire blazing in his direction.

“Oh, I clearly did,” he responded smugly, not in the least bit intimidated by her ire. “Now come over here and blow out this candle.” He waved his phone indicating that he would not be denied a picture of the occasion. “Your fellow residents were kind enough to play along, and I am absolutely getting proof that this happened.”

A glance over at said co-residents showed a bit of confusion at perhaps missing some kind of in-joke, but they also seemed rather pleased to be involved with a caper that appeared to annoy her this much. Claire walked over to where Morgan stood holding the cake, beaming as if she’d made it herself. Park looked thoroughly amused at the fireworks. And Shaun probably would rather be somewhere else with a patient but was kind enough to indulge her.

As threatened, Melendez moved out in front of them with his phone to get a picture of Claire blowing out her candle.

“Alright kids, gather together.” Claire rolled her eyes but complied. Morgan presented the cake to her, still so gleeful. She could be a pain in the ass most of the time, but she had her moments. Park stood behind them laughing at her reaction, although he seemed to be in some kind of power struggle with Melendez judging by the raised brow at their Attending. Shaun shuffled a little closer to get in the shot, but not so close as to make any unnecessary contact as people liked to do when taking pictures.

Melendez propped up his phone to take the picture. “Stop stalling and make a wish, Browne. Give the people what they want. Everybody else, say cheese or something.”

Smoothing out the glare she’d cast his way, she stared directly at him as she leaned over to defiantly blow out the candle.

Morgan, Park, and Melendez cheered. Shaun smiled and poked her arm with his elbow. Melendez walked over and showed off the cute picture he'd captured of them looking genuinely joyful. Taking a look around, Claire couldn’t stay annoyed at Melendez. This was actually really nice. And it was kind of cute how they’d kept this from her all morning only to lure her away for the surprise.

“Thanks, everyone. I’m not a big birthday person, so I wasn’t expecting how nice a gesture this is.” She caught an exchange of looks between Melendez and Park and continued to wonder what was up with them.

“Dr. Melendez, does this mean we’ll be going on a field trip to celebrate? Or maybe you’ve been so busy, it slipped your mind to plan something?”

Claire scoffed. “Are you kidding? There’s no way I’m letting him drag all of us out to another one of those things. I know it’s supposed to be team-building or whatever, but all of us pretending to tolerate an amusement park or an afternoon picnic or karaoke—”

“—or volunteering,” Morgan added.

“Uh, sure,” Claire agreed, frowning at Morgan’s weird interjection. “Everyone's grumbling over doing any of those things are not even remotely how I want to spend my birthday.”

“I would like to do all of those things,” Shaun said.

“Yeah, they are surprisingly fun-sounding,” offered Morgan.

“Agreed. Missed opportunity,” he said, though he directed it at Melendez. Everyone else turned to him as well, though Melendez seemed unphased at the accusation.

“Actually, I do have something special planned.” Park’s goading smile vanished while Melendez’s broadened, taking in each of his residents. “Remember that surgery Dartling had lined up – the routine heart valve replacement on the tech firm guy? Turns out he double-booked so we get it this afternoon. And as a thank you, the patient invited us to his annual private bash in Santa Cruz where you and a plus one can do whatever you want for the day on his estate. I hear there's golf and bungalows and beach parties and hammocks. And last year Beyonce and Jay-Z showed up as well as the Obamas so you might run into someone interesting.”

Park’s jaw dropped at the news. Morgan’s face lit up and Shaun seemed mildly interested in the prospect. But Claire and Melendez’s eyes found each other as they shared a bit of humor, Melendez for how he’d tricked all of them and Claire at how he’d managed to turn her birthday field trip into the best one of the lot.

“Come on, let’s cut this cake so we can have a slice before our surgery.” Melendez took the cake from Morgan and set it on the counter as Park grabbed plates and Morgan fished around for silverware.

The chocolate cake with coffee frosting was as decadent as it sounded. Morgan grumbled that it was a bit of a bold move for a surprise cake, but given Claire’s love of coffee and chocolate, a solid choice. Andrews popped his head in to wish Claire a happy birthday but declined a slice as against his no carb diet. Lim and Glassman also wandered down for a minute to share birthday wishes, Lim taking a healthy slice before winking at Melendez and ducking back out for a meeting, Glassman in tow.

After Lim left, Melendez gave everyone their marching orders. They already had surgical protocols from Dartling, so Park and Shaun were to start on that checklist. Morgan was sent to scheduling to officially log in the personnel changes and confirm their staffing. When only Claire and Melendez remained in the breakroom, she smiled at him as she re-boxed her cake.

“Hopefully, no one will steal this before I let a couple of the nurses know it’s here,” Claire said, putting the large knife they’d used to cut the cake in the dishwasher.

“In that case, you better set a slice aside for yourself to take home, just in case. Once the word gets out that there’s cake up for grabs, all bets are off.”

Claire laughed and wiped off the counter. “Thank you for trying not to make a big deal out of my birthday. You went a little sideways at the end,” she accused. “But I appreciate the restraint.”

Melendez leaned back against the counter as he watched her move around the area. “You should have seen them. Park and Morgan were so keyed up thinking I’d dropped the ball.” The memory of it seemed to spark a fresh bit of mirth. “I guess they had no way of knowing about that late night we had waiting for a patient’s donor kidney when the subject of birthdays came up.”

Grinning, Claire leaned her hip against the counter facing him “And I told you that I’d never had a birthday cake, but I’d always wanted a fancy chocolate one with coffee frosting.”

“And that you didn’t want people making a big deal about it because it would feel weird. Sorry, I couldn’t help you there. Turns out, we like celebrating you a little bit, Dr. Browne.” They held each other's gaze comfortably for a few moments, Claire's softly amused bright eyes meeting his warm dark ones.

“Well, you were right. It's nice.” Her smile turned a bit devilish. “For the record, despite what Park insinuated, I know you didn’t forget. It’s a pretty special day for you, too. It might have come up during our conversation that night also.”

He smiled at the reminder. “The anniversary of my first lead surgery when I was a resident.”

“And that you always have a decadent drink to celebrate how you aced it.” She moved behind him to the pantry where the doctors kept their personal snacks and lunch items. Grabbing a blue reuseable lunch bag with her name on it, Claire reached in and pulled out a small bottle to hand to him.

She almost laughed at the adorably confused look on his face. He turned the bottle around in his hand and his confusion turned to wonder. “You can’t get this scotch in the states, certainly not in a tasting size. It has to come straight from the distillery. Where did you get this?”

Claire shrugged. “I have my ways,” she replied, flashing him a sly smirk as she returned her lunch bag to the pantry.

“Thank you, Claire,” he said, an earnest sentiment of appreciation.

“You’re welcome. Thanks for the cake.” She swiped at a piece of frosting that’d clung to the side of the box it sat in and brought it to her mouth. “So good. I need to but it away now." She closed the lid to the cake box. "Now that that's taken care of, what do I need to do for our prize surgery?”

Melendez grinned. “I’m glad you asked.” He straightened up from where he’d been leaning on the counter and adjusted the sleeves on his blazer. “You are going to be first assist. We’ve got to get your skills sharp for your own first lead surgery when it comes around.” Claire beamed in surprise and delight. She’d seen him do the procedure before, of course, but not in a while and not when being first assist meant getting to do the bulk of the procedure herself. As he headed toward the door, he leaned in closer to her as he passed. “Happy birthday. Now go get ready.” 

Claire didn’t need to be told twice. She threw the cake into the refrigerator and followed him out.

* * *

Later, after a successful surgery, Claire spent a quiet night in with a nice dinner, a glass of wine, a good book, and the last piece of her very first birthday cake. Pulling up the picture Melendez had taken, she made a mental note to see if she could get a hard copy to frame. 

A few miles away, Melendez poured himself a small taster of a damn good scotch, courtesy of his most spirited resident. Pulling up the picture he'd taken earlier, he felt a sense of satisfaction at putting a smile on Claire's face today.

They both spent a few moments reflecting on everything that’d turned their day into one of celebration. And the special people who’d made it so.

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw the picture in question in episode 3x09, I thought, 'well, I wonder when that happened and who took that picture.' (I also wondered why it looked like the TARDIS showed up in the picture but that's another story entirely.) Again, I don't do a ton of editing on these so apologies for any typos and such.
> 
> I've been rotating the stories I'm working on so now back to a multi-chapter. Fingers crossed that I make good progress. This was definitely a fun distraction, though.


End file.
